In Honor of Elvis Week which was last week I am going to go over a few rules of Las Vegas vacations and try to hit several points every week…

Vegas Rules

* Keep your stuff on you or in the safe Your stuff is your responsibility. This is the City of Sin and someone will swipe your stuff if it is not secure..
* Take your meds. We are casino workers not social workers or counselers and if you get to nuts you are going to get evicted
* That hot chick half your age who seems so interested in you she actually buys you a drink is probably a pro and dude ..Shes going to roll you …she going to take your stuff and leave you with a hell of an explanation
* Pay your bills. Pay your room fees ahead of schedule before you run out of money. This is Vegas its very origin is wrapped up in a bright green package. It exists to make money and one you run out …See You …hasta La Bye Bye .. We really don’t care…

Summer in the City of Sin

By Royal Hopper 
Its summer in the City of Sin
Tourists from Idaho are in shorts
drinking Gin
The Sun overhead like a furnance
is blazing
The drunks from Canada arestumbling and at
the sun gazing
Theres a crow sitting on a pole wings open
staring with style
hes a zombie dried out unmoving been gone
for a while
The hot desert wind blows zombie crow around for a few
like a kite
the tourists look and actually clap locals supressing a grin with
all their might
signholders are holding and the cops are patrolling waitresses waiting
again and again
Its not crazy or stupid its really is just summer in
the city of sin

In the Summer time

 

 

This week I saw a really great concert with Shinedown and Godsmack and a New Zealand band called Like a Storm and most of the photos will be of that great show

Trust is Fragile and seldom recovers

by Royal Hopper

 
You see a sleepy smiling man and an angry sad woman walking toward the checkout line in a Sin City hotel and you know instantly that something bad is going to happen . The day is hot and dry every time the wind blows smoke and dust and the oppressive heat of a desert summer mingle with nearly six decades of Sin, celebration, destruction and decadence . The morning after buzz of caffeine inspired conversation suddenly halts as the man sleepily gives a half hearted smile and reaches his hand over for the woman to hold and the woman fighting back tears angrily slaps it away. It wasn’t that loud of a sound when the hand struck the hand away but it might as well have been a gun shot because everyone stopped talking and paid attention.
As they approached the line the woman set the keys on the counter stepped back thought for a moment, turned on a dime and walked toward the door he practical shoes making a muffled thump as she walked.
The man shrugged a little and began a conversation with the clerk then stopped and looked toward the woman and started when he realinzed she wasnt stopping. The noise from the summer time morning casino crowd increased in anticipation of the fight they were certain was going to happen.
She turns on a dime again taking something from her jacket ..a large oiece of paper it seems and throws on the the ground and turns again to leave. The man’s face turns angry and he hurries forward to grab the woman just as two security gaurds no doubt called to investigate the disturbance step forward.
They are nopt small men and the man halts in his tracks as the woman pushes the door open with a huff and walks toward the cab line. The man dodges around the gaurds and runs out the door as the gaurds sprint to keep up and interpose their large bodies between the soon to be ex couple.
The woman halts in her fast walk toward the cab perhaps seeing the large security guards blocking the mans path to her and in one precise feminine motion takes something off her finger and rears back as if to throw it..stops and thinks for a moment and then just drops it on the ground ..and waves her hand in front of her toward the man as if to say “Im done …enough is enough”

She closes her eyes says something to the gaurds ..something like thank you wipes tears from her eyes and then steps foward to hail one of the ever present taxi cabs gets in and dissapperas into the neon and concrete jungle that is the City of Sin ..
The gaurds leave now that the woman is gone and there is no fight to break up and the mans fumes impotently stomps his feet like a two year old and as the totally of the situation finally hitys him begins to fight back tears himself ..picks up the paper and the thing she threw down on the floor and concrete respectively and stumbles inside ..He heads toward the check out desk then changes his mind adn drifts over to the bar amd sits down with a thump in the nearest chair and looks up at the bartender ..who already has his drink made and sits it down in front of him…
Trust is a fragile thing ..it is a a treasure chest earned by other people and stored away for the rough times …It is easily shattered and bankrupted by selfishness, betrayal and lies and seldom if ever recovers ..Without trust and the ability to be trusted the smoothest opertor in the world is just another scumbag to be left drinking alone at a strange bar …His betrayal making them alone and lonely..

That is life in the City of Sin and everywhere else
Love You Sinners

 

Chicken Nachos never taste as good as you remember or live in the present

 

By Royal Hopper

 

It winter early 2018 and wind is blowing through the desert town like an angry spirit looking for a place to vent its winter angst on unsuspecting visitors. Its not really cold this is the desert but the wind is blowing into your face is dry and biting.
You and your significant other of nearly 24 years are tired and hungry proving the axiom that vacations and week end get aways are sometimes more exhausting than work can possibly be.
The idea was to walk down to the steak house at the end of the boulevard and treat yourself to a monthly dose of red meat and baked potatoes. Your mind is excited but your middle aged body has other ideas. Your memory screams steak….steak ….steak but your body says F that lets go to the closest place and eat whatever..

 

Just another half mile screams memory and you get a great once in a blue moon steak…..

Unable and unwilling to walk further despite the ambition that memories of youth scream at you disappears as with that unspoken agreement that only out of being together for a long time kicks in and you turn to the Belle ….and walk into the sports bar there to eat whatever they have…There is conversation because it is polite and you love each other but there is an unspoken sigh as you order Chicken nachos..
Surprise they are perfect ..tasty ..perfectly made crunchy and mouth watering …
The day is suddenly good as you share the perfect chicken nachos with your beloved …the world disappears for a moment and for a moment it is just you and her and your waitress. You finish your meal and walk away from the restaurant holding hands with a smile on your face and a memory that makes you want to go back….
Flash forward months later ..It is summer unspeakably hot like a giant blow dryer was built by space aliens turned invisible and placed over the city you visit just to make you hot and miserable.
Your middle aged common sense is telling you to turn around and just go eat at the Cafe in your hotel but the memory of the perfect chicken nachos an dholding hands with your beloved as the PA playes music popular when you were young drives you on ..You must have those perfect Nachos ……you must …
You push yourself to keep walking ..step by step toward your destination ,,,which you tell yourself is restaurant with great Nachos but is in fact ..a memory ..that’s what you are chasing a memory ….

You walk carefully into the colorfully named Colorado Belle across the casino and to the bar where the worlds best chicken nachos are served and then to the table in the colorfully themed casino full of anticipation and nervous excitement….This is something you have been waiting for weeks …months really ..and of course you order the perfect chicken…and then to your horror ..THEY ARE OKAY..not perfect…not …even great ..just okay ..tasty enough for bar food ..

Your disapointed and the memory is tarnished a bit ,,,,but you still end up leaving the bar hand in hand with your beloved ..sometimes today is better than a memory..not often but sometimes…Will you go back ..probably when the memory tarnished by the second chicken trip has faded and the memory of the perfect chicken nachos has reasserted itself.
The moral of the story is that nothing is ever as good as you remember even if it is it and it never will be…every moment is unique …Let the memories be memories and live in the right now because that is all there really is …
It is dangerous to live for memories or to expect them to suddenly expect them to be real or happening again because it it will never happen exactly the way you remember…
Love You Sinners
Royal